Ask questions to The Digital Bits team (Bill Hunt, Jeff Kleist et.al.)

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by merrick97

I assume you are talking about Blade Runner?

Yes.

[Jeff Kleist]

Crikey. It's been almost an hour. After I spend months slaving over hot informant networks

[gettodamoofies]

^ If you're referring to TNG - I saw and I am very happy!

I had hoped Paramount would be working on their next Star Trek release to coincide with the release of the next film and it looks like it might be the case. i can finally get right of the DVDs!

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by merrick97

IPersonally I miss a lot of oldschool special effects such as models.

Models are just another means to an end, just as CG is now.

Take 2012 (not a good movie, but decent disaster porn). Imagine how many miles long a model of the crumbling of LA would have to be in order to do it "old school". It's just not practical, nor cost effective these days.

Even then, shops like Industrial Light & Magic will go to their old facility which is now Kerner Optical if they need a model shot here and there. Just as they did on the last 2 Pirates of the Caribbean films and Star Trek.

Plus in certain films these days, there are plenty of shots where they put a CG object/replacement into the scene and the audience is none the wiser. A model would be much more difficult and not always as seamless.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

Models are just another means to an end, just as CG is now.

Take 2012 (not a good movie, but decent disaster porn). Imagine how many miles long a model of the crumbling of LA would have to be in order to do it "old school". It's just not practical, nor cost effective these days.

Even then, shops like Industrial Light & Magic will go to their old facility which is now Kerner Optical if they need a model shot here and there. Just as they did on the last 2 Pirates of the Caribbean films and Star Trek.

Plus in certain films these days, there are plenty of shots where they put a CG object/replacement into the scene and the audience is none the wiser. A model would be much more difficult and not always as seamless.

I never said CG doesnt have its uses OR that models are practical for everything, but I am just saying that too much CGI becomes too obvious and boring. Maybe I am just referring to the prequels in which it felt like I was watching a Pixar film most of the time.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Crikey. It's been almost an hour. After I spend months slaving over hot informant networks

Originally Posted by atexp80

^ If you're referring to TNG - I saw and I am very happy!

I had hoped Paramount would be working on their next Star Trek release to coincide with the release of the next film and it looks like it might be the case. i can finally get right of the DVDs!

No DS9 = No interest

[gettodamoofies]

^ I like DS9 too. Actually, I like all Trek but it's just sales vs. cost. I wouldn't be surprised if it eventually came along in some HD format as you'd have to think Paramount would future-proof one of their most lucrative and long-running franchises but it definitely won't sell as much as TNG so who knows when we'd see it.

Even though Enterprise has a much smaller fan-base you have to wonder what the suits at Paramount are thinking in terms of release. Once TNG is out where do you go from there??? VOY and DS9 would both require the same amount of work as TNG (moreso with DS9 as it didn't rely on stock VFX shots as much as the other two did) whereas Enterprise was at least made at a time where HD was in mind so you'd think it would cost a little less to release.

It'll be interesting to see what happens...

Regarding TNG: I hope any updated effects are good. Although some of the early seasons featured some questionable shots a lot of the model photography looked very nice. I'd be disappointed if the new effects don't look as nice as the model work. Ultimately some shots might look better recomposited, assuming of course that the original elements are in tact.

[MerrickG]

Jeff,

I am curious if you are concerned about Mass Effect 3 being dumbed down too much after it was announced that the game will be delayed and John Riccitiello making the comments that

"[Bioware] is adjusting some of the gameplay mechanics and some of the features, which we'll see at E3, that can put this into a genre equivalent of shooter meets RPG, and essentially address a far larger market opportunity than Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2 began to approach."

Eventhough ME2 was overall a better game than ME1, many people were disappointed by how stripped down the RPG elements of ME2 were.

IS ME3 going to be a straight up shooter? We shall see...

[Jeff Kleist]

No I prefer that. I just want a more advanced inventory. Everyone is pretty sure that it's just to make the GOW style multiplayer in box

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

No I prefer that. I just want a more advanced inventory. Everyone is pretty sure that it's just to make the GOW style multiplayer in box

See that's the kinda crap that I and many others are afraid of. Multiplayer has NO place in an ME game. It'll end up being tacked on and will divert resources to make the single player game as strong as possible. Nobody wants multiplayer in an ME game and I have a very hard time believing it will significantly expand their audience. While bioware has earned the benefit of the doubt I am concerned that EA has gotten into their head like they did for Dragon Age 2.

[Jeff Kleist]

Dragon Age 2 sucked because they threw it together. ME3's multiplayer, last time i looked at it was being developed by an outside team

I think the biggest reason they moved it is to avoid the Christmas pigpile

[nathan_393]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Dragon Age 2 sucked because they threw it together. ME3's multiplayer, last time i looked at it was being developed by an outside team

I think the biggest reason they moved it is to avoid the Christmas pigpile

And what a Christmas pigpile that's going to end up being!
I am counting down the days to Uncharted 3 already!

[Maxwell Everett]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Crikey. It's been almost an hour. After I spend months slaving over hot informant networks

If you are talking about Star Trek TNG...

Tell me they are going to try and preserve as many of the original 35mm miniature shots as possible and have Rob Legato, Gary Hutzel, Ronald B. Moore or Dan Curry (whomever is available and cheapest) supervise or at least approve on some level the compositing against new starfields and planets.

Also, are they going to involve DPs Marvin Rush or Jonathan West in the new scans of the negatives to get the color timing correct? Or is some nobody going to arbitrarily decide what the show should look like. These are the raw negatives we're talking about.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Dragon Age 2 sucked because they threw it together. ME3's multiplayer, last time i looked at it was being developed by an outside team

I think the biggest reason they moved it is to avoid the Christmas pigpile

Thats what Im hoping the real reason is. My only complaint about ME2 is that they dumbed down the RPG elements a little too much. Thanksfully every interview I have read suggests that much of the customization will return and the RPG elements will be beefed back up. I just hope they dont go away from that.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Maxwell Everett

Tell me they are going to try and preserve as many of the original 35mm miniature shots as possible and have Rob Legato, Gary Hutzel, Ronald B. Moore or Dan Curry (whomever is available and cheapest) supervise or at least approve on some level the compositing against new starfields and planets.

Up until they got the new Enterprise model for the third season the majority non-ILM motion control shots of the ship are pretty bad. They just didn't know how to shoot those models very well.

The new model elements were also shot at 30fps 35MM to avoid 3/2 pulldown in post so they can't really use those anyway, since the HD versions will be at 1080/24p.

[Max_Genus]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Crikey. It's been almost an hour. After I spend months slaving over hot informant networks

I'm... Guardedly optimistic. Or, at least trying to be.

I was SO glad that the TOS BDs included ye olde effects (still hoping beyond hope that George Lucas will wake up & smell this coffee - yeah, I know ).

I might not be so strict with TNG though - depending how it turns out.

Edit:... Reasons why I should never post while trying to multitask with a headache... "including ye olde effects" from TNG... Wow.

[Jeff Kleist]

Just please understand that I can't dish any details on specifics about TNG in terms of the specifics as to what's changed what's not. I would assume that all the ships that were shot on video will be replaced, as peter mentioned, the 30fps ships, the viewscreens, the animated control panels, and any of the episode specific ship shots. Probably phasers as well

I will say right now, especially seasons 1 and 2: DO NOT expect them to look amazing. They were shot 16mm. Better than the DVDs? They should kick their asses.

[Jeff Kleist]

Here's 2 free Gears of War 3 beta codes. Just please post that you've used one


TG2T6-VHF6G-FXW76-KT3VT-999XZ
T2GMP-JD6PP-JMFG4-JRV29-GGV7Z

Enter it on your Xbox under "redeem code" on the guide

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Here's 2 free Gears of War 3 beta codes. Just please post that you've used one


TG2T6-VHF6G-FXW76-KT3VT-999XZ
T2GMP-JD6PP-JMFG4-JRV29-GGV7Z

Enter it on your Xbox under "redeem code" on the guide

Do you think that Nintendo's new console has now pushed development for a new Xbox and Playstation sooner than anticipated?

For the next gen consoles, I don't expect Sony and MS to use dramatically different architecture since I have a feeling that they want to keep the costs much lower this time around so they dont have to lose so much money per unit sold and frankly thats what I HOPE they will do so they can maintain backwards compatibility.

I played Crysis 2 and Mass Effect 2 on PC and it became so obvious to me how far consoles have fallen compared to the PC and I do now feel that this cycle is up and its time for the next gen to start being talked about.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

the 30fps ships

It's very curious to me that they would

1) shoot principal photography at 24fps for a 59.97fps target

and then

2) shoot fx at 30fps to integrate with that 24fps footage.

What were they thinking? Were they thinking?